ABLV bank subsidiary's investment license revoked by regulator

Latvia's financial regulator the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FKTK) said May 29 it had decided to cancel the license held by ABLV Capital Markets, IBAS, a subsidiary of ABLV bank, for investment services and ancillary investment services.

"Such a decision was made on the basis of the application of ABLV Capital Markets, IBAS to FKTK with a request to cancel the license issued to it and after making sure that the investment brokerage firm has fully fulfilled its obligations arising from the provision of investment services to its clients," said FKTK in a statement.

The license was revoked on May 28, 2019, FKTK said. ABLV bank's license was revoked in July last year.

ABLV Capital Markets, IBAS was one of the largest brokerage service providers in Latvia, and by the end of 2017 the total assets of its clients invested in financial instruments amounted to 1.34 billion euros, according to the bank.

As previously reported by LSM, ABLV collapsed more than a year ago after a damning report from the U.S. Department of the Treasury alleged it presented a major money-laundering threat. In the ensuing months it entered into a process of "voluntary liquidation" that has proven to be fairly controversial in its own right, a process that continues to this day as part of efforts to clean up the banking sector and restore its reputation in the wake of a series of damaging scandals involving money-laundering, tax avoidance schemes and sanctions-busting.